Typically, morphological examination of the tissues is performed to characterize squamous cell carcinomas of the head and neck and tissues adjacent to such tumor tissue. The morphological examination usually involves the sectioning and staining of an excised tissue sample followed by microscopic examination by a cytologist or pathologist. However, visual examination does result in some errors, particularly by pathologists who do not routinely encounter such tissue samples.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have a technique which does not require visual examination of morphological characteristics to diagnose or confirm a pathologist's diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.